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fuzzy clown?


Wjcastiglione

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Wjcastiglione

One of my clowns has a slight fuzz to him... I've never noticed it before. my buddy just pointed it out to me.

 

I've taken about six dozen pictures of him and I can't get it to show up in any pictures at all.

 

Please note: I had a coral beauty that recently came into my tank with ich - he was brought back to the LFS he was purchased from when he was diagnosed with white spots - now this.

 

I cannot notice anything else about him - anybody can help?

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It's called cotton/wool disease. There are treatments but you'll not want those in the reef so a treatment tank may be necessary. Some can be soaked into food as well which is the best way to deliver the medication. I've seen other people catch the fish and gently wipe it off as well/

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Wjcastiglione

I read online that I need to sanitize all the rocks and such? is this for real? cause I mean - I can't do all that - that's nuts. I may as well start over.

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I believe fungus is rare in reef aquaria. I would be suspicious of something else. Perhaps the fuzz you are seeing is the slime coat peeling away... maybe brooklynella?

 

If the sick fish was in the tank.. even for a short period... it could have still passed on parasites.

 

Without pics... who knows though.

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Wjcastiglione

so if you guys were me - what would you do?

 

I almost want to quarantine all three fish I have and treat them all so I can be done with this.

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Don't sterilize your rocks... That's impracticable at best (Not gonna get every microscopic organism). Best bet is the quarantine tank and some Furan 2 and/or prazipro. But yeah a pic (even if it's not completely clear) helps a lot on our end

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Wjcastiglione

Ok - I'm pretty sure it's ich - just a lot of it.

 

I can't really get a good picture but here is the best I've gotten - you can't even really tell.

 

I've started treating the tank with Kordon Ich Attack - I removed filter media, turned off my skimmer - and I've done two doses. One last night. One this morning.

 

 

 

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Ok - I'm pretty sure it's ich - just a lot of it.

 

I can't really get a good picture but here is the best I've gotten - you can't even really tell.

 

I've started treating the tank with Kordon Ich Attack - I removed filter media, turned off my skimmer - and I've done two doses. One last night. One this morning.

 

Don't expect Kordon Ich Attack to work. :( The spots WILL disappear but that is part of the ichs normal life cycle.

 

To be certain you cure it... all of the fish need to be removed and treated with hypo or copper or tank transfer method and the display tank left without fish for 8 weeks.

 

Otherwise the fishes own immune system may fight it off but any time you add a new fish or there is a stressor, the tank may break out again.

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Wjcastiglione

Don't expect Kordon Ich Attack to work. :( The spots WILL disappear but that is part of the ichs normal life cycle.

 

To be certain you cure it... all of the fish need to be removed and treated with hypo or copper or tank transfer method and the display tank left without fish for 8 weeks.

 

Otherwise the fishes own immune system may fight it off but any time you add a new fish or there is a stressor, the tank may break out again.

 

well - update - everyone in the tank appears to have ich now... I've heard very good things about kordon ich attack. The new coral beauty appears to be a bit of a bully - the two clowns I have seem scared of him. He has ich as well - and is only 4-5 days old.

 

If that's really the case - I may as well quit this hobby now - because I'm not trying to have a empty tank in my living room for two months.. that's stupid.

 

anybody else have an opinion? not to discredit Tamberav, but I'm just hoping for better news... :mellow:

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NorthGaHillbilly

well - update - everyone in the tank appears to have ich now... I've heard very good things about kordon ich attack. The new coral beauty appears to be a bit of a bully - the two clowns I have seem scared of him. He has ich as well - and is only 4-5 days old.

 

If that's really the case - I may as well quit this hobby now - because I'm not trying to have a empty tank in my living room for two months.. that's stupid.

 

anybody else have an opinion? not to discredit Tamberav, but I'm just hoping for better news... :mellow:

With that attitude you might be on to something. Im not trying to further dampen your enthusiasm but the ich is there, and Tamberav is correct.

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well - update - everyone in the tank appears to have ich now... I've heard very good things about kordon ich attack. The new coral beauty appears to be a bit of a bully - the two clowns I have seem scared of him. He has ich as well - and is only 4-5 days old.

 

If that's really the case - I may as well quit this hobby now - because I'm not trying to have a empty tank in my living room for two months.. that's stupid.

 

anybody else have an opinion? not to discredit Tamberav, but I'm just hoping for better news... :mellow:

 

It says right on their website it does not eliminate ich.

 

" It may be an inhibitor, but is not an eliminator of infectious viruses, bacteria and multi-celled organisms. "

 

http://www.kordon.com/kordon/products/organic-herbal-preventatives-and-treatments-2/ich-attack-disease-treatment#compatabilities-toxicity!

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Wjcastiglione

With that attitude you might be on to something. Im not trying to further dampen your enthusiasm but the ich is there, and Tamberav is correct.

 

Look man, I get that I'm not positive about this - but this tank has only been set up for 2-3 months... it hasn't exactly been a treat along the way.

 

Now, I have to have this tank down from the beginning? I just started this tank.

 

Realistically - can I take these fish out - treat them for ich, and NOT leave the tank empty for two months? or am I just setting myself up for failure?

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Look man, I get that I'm not positive about this - but this tank has only been set up for 2-3 months... it hasn't exactly been a treat along the way.

 

Now, I have to have this tank down from the beginning? I just started this tank.

 

Realistically - can I take these fish out - treat them for ich, and NOT leave the tank empty for two months? or am I just setting myself up for failure?

 

it has to be empty of fish because you need to starve the ich so it dies.

 

You may want to think about a quarantine tank for fish in the future as any time you add a fish.. this could happen :( It sucks.

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NorthGaHillbilly

Look man, I get that I'm not positive about this - but this tank has only been set up for 2-3 months... it hasn't exactly been a treat along the way.

 

Now, I have to have this tank down from the beginning? I just started this tank.

 

Realistically - can I take these fish out - treat them for ich, and NOT leave the tank empty for two months? or am I just setting myself up for failure?

You can add coral, shrimp, other inverts. Ive had tanks without fish a few times.

 

That being said, you CAN just wait and see with the ich. There are plenty of tanks, Id go so far as to say A LOT of tanks, with ich, if you keep your fish healthy they will likely be alright. But its sure to pop up from time to time.

 

Tanks can be a major bitch, and Ive found fish to be MORE of an issue than coral.

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The display tank only needs to be fallow of vertebrates - ie fish. INvertebrates are perfectly OK to add during this time (in fact should NOT be moved to the hospital tank where most ich meds employ copper, which would kill them as well as the ich parasite).

 

So corals, snails, crabs, shrimp, macro algae are still options. No need to break down your main tank or have it become an eyesore or testament to failure... just change stocking emphasis during the treatment period and be patient. It'll be even better after you can safely put fish back in.

 

Edit: Beaten to the punch by NGHB, apparently. ;)

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It's so cold in the D.

 

Seriously some great advice here - Tamberav gets it... I've done ass loads of research on ich and similar parasitic infestations and I've had enough experience myself to tell you that hypo and copper are the 2 solutions. Pick one and carry though with it 100%. Anything less and you'll probably end up doing just as much work or worse everything dies.

 

I'm glad you're not quitting. You have to remember that most of these fish come from the ocean. So a lot of them come in hosting parasites and other organisms. They have immune systems so they can fight them off - to a degree. But like people and many animals once you're stressed your immune system becomes weaker and consequently the parasite becomes stronger.

 

So anyways this is one reason I ALWAYS use a quarantine tank, no exceptions, ever. Would you let a stranger, even if they seem healthy and nice live in your home? I think a reasonable person wouldn't until they can get to know them a bit, and feel assured that they aren't going to bring anything bad into the house. A QT can be something as simple as a 10g tank with a power filter, and a few pieces of PVC for hiding. You don't have to cycle it, just do water changes frequently (say 1g per day) to remove waste and if you have a sponge rinse it out a lot. Test daily for ammonia build up. Your display tank must remain fishless for the duration of the parasites life cycle though or when you add the fish back they could get re-infected.

 

My favorite medication for treating ich is Cupramine, seachem makes a version of it.

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I have Ich in my 150 but I have a lot more water volume and I'm not afraid to feed the fish and keep them healthy, so I generally have to go through a few episodes with any new fish and it slowly fades BUT IT IS NOT GONE. Once the fish are mostly immune it can still attack the gills and any fish that gets overly stressed might never show outward symptoms but die from ich in the gills.

 

It's a double whammy in a new tank with poor water quality and new fish being added and usually ends up killing everything.

 

So if somehow you can survive this outbreak you have to understand that even without any visible symptoms adding a new fish will most likely cause another small outbreak. The ich is always there unless you move all the fish and go fishless until all the ich parasites die.

 

The poison is in the dose, as they say. I'm not so sure any tank is 100% ich free but if you keep healthy fish and reduce the opportunity for ich to thrive then the parasite can be kept at a low enough population where it is harmless.

 

So just to beat a dead horse ....

 

Let's say you do like I do and are now running ich free, or apparently ich free. You add an unhealthy fish and the ich attacks it, reproduces, attacks it again, reproduces again, and now the ich population is climbing above background levels. Maybe this new fish causes some stress to an existing fish, maybe it lowers water quality, etc. Ich has a chance to get better established and you could be looking at a full blown outbreak again.

 

/shrug

 

With a newer tank I'm honestly not sure what I would do. I always buy my fish from the same store and apparently I've been fairly lucky to not have ever had a big ich outbreak, but I'm a stickler for water quality. When I add a new tiny cardinal fish to 150 gallons I dose Seachem Prime to detox ammonia as a standard practice, even though with a tank this size that is rather silly. It's just a good habit. When I first started up my 40 I added too many fish at once and noticed the bright green algae on the tank walls and new I might be having an ammonia spike (because I'm an idiot) so I dosed Seachem Prime daily for 2 weeks. I never lost a fish and never saw ich, but I suspect it was there.

 

Good wall of text? :) Good luck!

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Also, just to make sure we're all talking about the same thing the parasite being referenced as "ich" is Cryptocaryon Irritans... Ich is actually a similar parasite that lives in fresh water.

 

I forgot to mention have some prime on hand for a QT tank. That stuff's pretty awesome and you can use it to curb low levels of ammonia on a temporary basis.

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